A report just came out that the iPhone has slashed the RAZR’s three year record as the number 1 selling phone in the USA, according to market research firm NPD.

Appleinsider.com covered the report in great detail, but it appears the bloodbath culminated in the third quarter of this year. This was the same time when the 3G iPhone came out, surely a coincidence?

To the layman, one would think that a single phone has done so well in sales for more than two years. When in actual fact there has been more RAZR’s produced in that period than there are skeletons in a presidential candidate’s closet waiting to come out.

All in all it’s kind of misleading, unless you really know the full low down. In saying that, it’s still some feat that only two models of a phone (not including the different storage sizes) have managed to unseat a successful run.

It was of course the iPhone 3G that took the Motorola RAZR to the mattresses, and we’re not denying that and the data by NPD backs it up.

Falling into third place was the Blackberry Curve, followed by LG’s Rumor, and once again LG with the enV2.

This all falls into place when you realise Apple recently released details that more handsets have shifted in Q3 than RIM’s devices.

Some other interesting stats came to light in the report, such as 43 percent of handset purchases were focussed on the camera, and 36 percent were keen on its text messaging abilities. Not all that surprising when handsets with an actual QWERTY keyboard have had the greatest rise in sales from last year, with 30 percent of phones sold having this feature.

For more on this report, see here

However Giff from i2SMS noted a key stat (in the same piece at Arc Chart, this time referencing a study by Rubicon Consulting):

24% — or, almost a quarter — of those surveyed who upgraded to an iPhone, did so from a stinky Motorola RAZR.

Now I don’t have exact stats — and I can’t be sure how representative the Rubicon Consulting study is. The important bit for me is the mind-blowing difference of experience that those RAZR users will have encountered.

I would have loved to have sat and watched the new iPhone user put his RAZR in a drawer in his desk and unpack his new device… and start surfing, Googling, texting, taking photos and so on.

I wonder just how many iPhone users, worldwide, are entirely new to the ’smartphone’ experience? Fascinating.